Rob Buckland - Saxophonist

Jason Rebello & Rob Buckland Duo: By curious coincidence, Jason Rebello and Rob Buckland, both highly respected as musicians who cross many genres, and whose individual performing schedules regularly take them to the far corners of the globe, discovered that their musical orbits will unexpectedly and fortuitously align on 26th February. This curious turn of fate presents an opportunity for them to compile an engaging set that brings together music with influences from the many and varied musical situations that these two players frequently find themselves, and to combine these genres and sounds to create a new duo that draws its inspiration from an astonishingly wide range of music. Expect chilled melodies, laid back grooves and unexpected gems from the likes of Pat Metheny, Kenny Wheeler, Bob Mintzer, Manu Katche, Ralph Towner, and originals from Jason and Rob. This is the first time the Duo will have played together...and who knows, it may be the last!....so book now, just in case!!!  https://www.quaytickets.com/cinnamon/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=53F69AB2-4F8F-4D0B-8B69-6E1B8E55D095

Earlier this year, I was invited to record Martin Ellerby's new Cinnamon Concerto for a disc on the Polyphonic label, and this exciting recording has just been released. The recording took place on a very hot late summer day in the RNCM's fabulous Concert Hall, and the college's Wind Orchestra played brilliantly on a very tight schedule - we had just 2 hours to record the whole piece - it certainly has a lot of energy!!!.

Thanks to everyone who made the 11th RNCM Saxophone Day on 13 Nov 11 such a great success!  The atmosphere was incredible all day, in the massed saxophones session that started the day, throughout all of the workshops and classes, and of course the concerts - John Harle and Julian Arguelles were stunning special guests. Looking forward to seeing you all next year - watch this space for announcements of dates and artists.

Life as a saxophonist is always varied, colourful, unexpected and unpredictable - here are 2 photos I took from the stage on consecutive nights last week in Manchester - one is the view from the stage at the M.E.N. Arena during the Children in Need Rocks Manchester concert that was broadcast live to the UK on BBC1 and Radio 1 - I was on stage with Michael Buble, and the other is the view from the stage the following night when I was playing with Jeremy Sassoon's Trio in Dmitri's Bar in Manchester - both were really great gigs, but for very different reasons!!!  Life is indeed a rollercoaster!!!!

"Scaredy Cat is the most coolest piece I have ever played...the guy who wrote it must be the most amazing dude ever!!" ( Alastair - yr9).

Scaredy Cat is one of my compositions for solo saxophone (and now clarinet and flute too) that features on the Grade 5 syllabus for a couple of exam boards.  Published in the Solo Saxophone Book (http://www.astute-music.com) it has unexpectedly proven to be one of my most popular pieces, and I am constantly getting emails from young players asking all about the Scaredy Cat - what it's name is, what colour it is, etc, as well as lovely comments about the piece.  The quote above was sent to me this week by one of my ex-students, who's Yr9 pupil came out with this quote in his lesson - kudos indeed! 

It was also played down the phone on the Simon Mayo Radio 2 drive time show on the clarinet a while back, and features in concerts and exams all over the place.  Scaredy Cat has become a legend thanks to all of you who bought it and play it!!!  Do email in with any more sightings of the Scaredy Cat, and I'll post them up here!!!  

In the next 6 months or so, I am going to be recording no less than 5 saxophone concertos - a new CD on my own label of Saxophone Concertos that I have commissioned/premiered for Saxophone and Wind Orchestra - which will feature World Premiere recordings of fantastic concerti by Graham Fitkin, Michael Ball, Jacob Ter Veldhuis and Andy Scott (the last one is a double saxophone concerto featuring myself and John Harle), which is being recorded in mid-november, and will be released in the late spring of 2012.

If any of you creative folk out there are involved in any kind of new projects, running events, festivals, societies, companies, ensembles, anything creative, you should check out this great little book written by Derek Sivers, the founder of CDBaby - the first (and in my opinion) best online CD distribution resource for independent musicians.

Just a quick update: places are booking up really fast on all of my courses this summer, so if you are leaving it until the last minute to book, you may be disappointed.  If you book your places asap, we can plan accommodation and timetables to suit everyone - leaving it to the last minute creates an absolute nightmare for the course administrators!!! THANKYOU!!!!  (Links on the Educator/Summerschools tab above).

I was delighted to be invited to be soloist in a performance of Jennifer Watson's Reflections, with Ensemble 10:10, conducted by Clark Rundell at the Capstone in Liverpool in November 2010.